2018 OFF GRID HOMESTEAD PANTRY INVENTORY
So with the exception of a bit of animal butchering and meat preservation, our pantry stocking is about over and we can take a look at all the wonderful contents inside. It's nice to look back on the work of your hands and see all that you have made in the months prior to a long winter. Like the ant that works all summer long in preparation for a cold winter ahead, we have our food stored up that will feed our family.
So here is an inventory of our current pantry as it stands today.
CONTENTS:
Green Beans
Pickles - Spicy/Dill
Pickled Jalepeno
Carrots
Black Beans
Red Kidney Beans
Venison Meat
Chicken Meat
Chicken Stock
Lamb Stock
Beef Stock
Peaches
Blackberry Jam
Peach Jam
Sorghum Syrup
Spicy Salsa/Mild Salsa
Tomato Juice
Dried Meats and Hard Salami
First up is our canned meats. We have a good amount of Venison meat from 3 deer harvested this year. We also have a good amount of chicken meat canned up. We use this meat for a variety of meals including tacos, chilli, and soups during the winter!
Next up is Zac's favorite spicy salsa. We have these in pint and quart jars because we usually bring these out for big meals and they don't last long. Salsa is so versatile. Any meal you would add tomatoes to, you can just add salsa with its spices including its mixed in garlic, onions and herbs, it makes a perfect add on.
Tomato juice comes in handy in a number of ways. Storing this in large amounts will allow you many meal options in the winter months when the wood stove is always going and you can render the juice down further if desired. We have a lot of this stocked up! Also, tomato soup always hits the spot!
Carrots! Easy ingredient to eat as is with a meal or added to a quick soup recipe.
BEANS! This is and has been a main food source for our homestead since we started. Truth be told, we don't grow a lot of beans just to cut down on the work load of harvesting them. We have found some really good and cheap sources to buy organic beans in bulk. So we order the beans and can them throughout the year. Right now our pantry is stocked full of black bean and red kidney beans.
PEACHES! Lots of peaches are in our pantry. This year we canned our peaches with no added sugar. They turned out great and very delicious! We can use these for all kinds of treats like pies or mixed with yogurt that we get from a local family that has a milk cow. Or you can simply eat them out of the jar for a treat. We love peaches and we get them every year from a local orchard. Our own peach trees get closer and closer to maturity with each passing year and before we know it, we will be harvesting our own peaches!
Not only is the pantry stocked up on peaches, we have a good amount of blackberry preserves and peach jam stocked up. We often give these out as gifts to visitors of the homestead or to family and neighbors.
We have an abundance of both spicy and dill pickled cucumbers from the garden. These are great for snacking. The spicy variety is using a ghost pepper mix to add heat! WOW! Pictured also is pickled jalapenos from the garden and other local gardens in the area this year. It seems there was a bumper crop of jalapenos this year and so we have taken advantage and pickled bunch for later use. We love these!
We're not finished yet. Also among the pantry items we have a variety of dried spices in jars. This is one of about 5 jars of dried basil that we love using on different meals throughout the year. We may do a whole blog post on all the spices we keep on hand.
You will also find things like homemade medicines in our pantry. That is not whiskey. It's a used whiskey bottle that is full of jewelweed tincture that is great for when Zac or one of the kids gets into poison ivy in the summer. Jewelweed is great for treating poison ivy! And it usually grows right along side of it.
The last thing I will show you from our pantry is one of our dried pieces of meat. We dry some of our meat every year that will keep indefinitely until we decide to use it. We have done videos on this in the past to show how we preserve our harvested meat by smoking and salting it. We have about 7 sticks of hard salami and meat left over from last year still hanging in the pantry. To use this, you would need to soak it in hot water and then cut it up and add it to soups. It's heavily salted so the initial soaking would draw out much of the salt before adding it to the soup.
So this is the status of the homestead pantry as it stands on January 1st. Next summer, Zac wants more pickled Okra.
What do you want for your pantry next year?
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